This is a student blog post submitted by Marcus Payne II, C’17. Marcus is a communications and biblical and theological studies major.
That has been on my heart for a while. This passion to be more than a statistic started at the first college I attended, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE). There, for the first time in my life, I had a black male professor, and it was one of the most mind-blowing and enriching experiences I ever had. He constantly made us aware of our vulnerability as black men, and how the world expected us to fail. He made sure we were aware that all 25 of the black men in that class could be more than the next rapper and ball player.
These experiences led me to a phase in life where I want to pair racial reconciliation with the truth of the Gospel.
In America, oppression and marginalization exist even while people claim the country to be Christian. I feel that this is the direct opposite of how Christ envisioned the kingdom of God. Lupe Fiasco says in his song Strange Fruition: “Now I can’t pledge allegiance to your flag because I can’t find no reconciliation with your past / When there was nothing equal for my people in your math / You forced us in the ghetto and then you took our dads.”
As a black man, my life is honestly expendable to America. However, North Park showing a sign that they care for people who look like me, by hosting a Black Lives Matter rally—that was a step back into the realm of reconciliation and the Gospel’s true message of liberation.
In today’s society, there is an obvious lack of love and that is what is missing in the reality true freedom. For author and pastor Dwight Hopkins, love is freedom and allows oppressed and marginalized people to find their true image, which is the Imago Dei. For Hopkins, both love and freedom are keys to having a healthy theological anthropology that pushes us to the image of God and directs Christians towards God’s mission. “‘Freedom and justice for all’ isn’t a reality for people of color because there is a lack of love in society,” he writes.
So what is the solution? In his book A Black Theology of Liberation, James Cone uses the resurrection of Christ to show the need to liberate those who are oppressed. For Cone, Christ’s resurrection is the theme that shows the ultimate power over oppression. “To say no to oppression and yes to liberation is to encounter the existential significance of the Resurrected One.”
Easter is approaching and, from a Christian perspective, remembering the Resurrected One is what will bring true reconciliation and freedom.